Either that, or it’s the Weasley’s house from Harry Potter.
This crazy house is located near the town of Willow in Alaska.
Image Courtesy of Jovell Rennie / Twitter: @jovellyism / Instagram: @jovell / Via blog.jovellyism.com
This Mysterious House In Alaska Is Almost Too Whimsical
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Watch These Sweet Cake Decorating Machines That Will Blow Your Mind
Who knew frosting could be so mesmerizing?
Cake decorating is an art, and watching these incredible machines perfectly dress up some delicious sweets is just a delight.
There's this awesome squiggle monster.
BuzzFeedVideo / Via youtube.com
This perfect pink rose-maker.
BuzzFeedVideo / Via youtube.com
This machine with lovely penmanship.
BuzzFeedVideo / Via youtube.com
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What Do People Always Underestimate About You?
Go prove ‘em all wrong.
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Women Who Sparked Your Sexual Awakening
Lola Bunny is still hot!
BuzzFeed Yellow / Via youtube.com
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Who Said It: Ilana Wexler Or Abbi Abrams Of "Broad City"?
“Beyoncé and I do have similar curves.”
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Exes Cuddle Again For The First Time Since Breaking Up And It's Unbearably Awkward
“How’s your boyfriend?”
BuzzFeedVideo found two sets of couples who hadn't seen each other since breaking up, and invited them back to cuddle again. Here's the awkwardness that unfolded...
BuzzFeed Video / Via youtube.com
This is Ben and Linda. They ended things on pretty good terms, and are both up for a snuggle. Why? Linda says: "I'm doing this just because I like doing weird things."
BuzzFeedVideo / Via youtube.com
Now, meet Alex and Whitney. Things didn't end quite so well for them. After about six months of dating, Whitney told Alex she just wanted to be friends. Alex made a music video about it, and Whitney was not happy about that.
Oh boy... here we go.
BuzzFeedVideo / Via youtube.com
And we're already off to a very awkward start.
BuzzFeedVideo / Via youtube.com
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Here Are The Companies Making Your Airbnb Feel More Like A Hotel
What began as crashing on a stranger’s futon has become a industry-swallowing juggernaut. But as the service matures, more customers expect the fancy linens and amenities found at hotels — and a group of startups are emerging to provide just that.
Chris Weeks / Getty Images
In the old days, when you booked a hotel room you knew roughly what you would be getting: a certain amount of cleanliness, amenities, services, and comfort, depending on how much you're willing to pay. And as Airbnb gradually takes over the market, a new ecosystem of service providers is emerging, aiming to bring a degree of order and predictability to the world of crashing in a stranger's apartment.
One of Airbnb's triumphs has been creating a fairly trustworthy layer of user reviews atop of a vast pool of rooms for hire that range from some guy's couch to a serviced penthouse. As a general rule, users can book a well-rated room from a host with lots of positive feedback and feel fairly comfortable that things will work out. But the company, which expects to pull in half a billion dollars of revenue from an estimated 1.5 million listings by the end of this year, still offers a mixed bag of experiences, and many believe the semi-chaotic system will gradually become standardized, much like the hotel industry it is gradually swallowing.
Enter companies like Guesty, Keycafe, Proprly, City CoPilot, SkyBell, Smart Host, and Beyond Pricing. A growing army of entrepreneurs aim to drive the standardization of Airbnb and the wider industry, offering everything from cleaning services, key exchange, and property management to a physical concierge desk for Airbnb listings in a given neighborhood. Beyond just piggybacking on Airbnb's growth, these companies hope to be the standard-setters for a new industry that looks set to boom long into the future, and will come under more and more pressure to offer a reliable experience, and one that complies with local laws.
"With Airbnb there's going to have to be some increased regulation on the rooms that are on their site and that consumers are using," Dan Wasiolek, a hospitality analyst with Morningstar, told BuzzFeed News. He noted that New York recently increased the ranks of its Airbnb legality task force to ensure the quality and safety of Airbnb rooms offered in the city remained at adequate levels. "I think that makes all the sense in the world," he said.
While the concept of standardizing Airbnb listings the way hotels are grouped by star ratings may be appealing, the pure volume of listings and users makes it a challenge. In other words, how can you create order and standardization among a pool of listings that is swelling to well beyond the million mark?
"They need to have standards, and Airbnb knows that," said Randy Engler, a former eBay executive and frequent Airbnb host who founded property management startup Proprly in 2013 when he recognized a need for better guest experience among Airbnb hosts.
"The standard of cleaning and room experience, in hotels it's binary, it's either up to those standards or it's not, and we're trying to bring that to Airbnb, we're trying to get that on listings. If you go and check into a W or Ritz you don't even have to think about it."
Similar challenges have played out at Uber and other ride-hailing companies, where the original promise of "ride-sharing" — an app-enabled version of carpooling, person to person, for a low price — has given way to a much more commercial product, with common standards for vehicles, drivers, prices, and service. It's easy to see the so-called "home sharing" business going the same way.
Airbnb would not comment for this story. But a number of these startup founders told BuzzFeed News that the company is aware of the need for quality metrics on its listings that go beyond just guest reviews. Engler attributes many bad Airbnb user experiences — messy rooms, complicated key pickup rituals, canceled bookings — to its astonishingly fast growth. The startups around Airbnb hope to become indispensable to the company and its users as the market matures.
"When you're growing that fast things are breaking," Engler said. "That's the thread that is really challenging, because a lot of hosts, it's not that they're bad hosts, it's just if you've never stayed in a nice hotel, how do you have any concept of what it's like to stay in a nice hotel?"
Mariah Summers / BuzzFeed News
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Organic Vs. Conventional Fruit: Can People Tell The Difference?
Can People Tell The Difference Between Organic and Conventional Fruit?
BuzzFeed Video / Via youtube.com
Via youtube.com
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This Dad's Awesome Cardboard Fort For His Kids Violates City Code
Jeremy Trentelman’s cardboard fort for his kids came with windows, trap doors and a green slide. Then the city of Ogden, Utah, gave him 15 days to take it down.
Jeremy Trentleman had a pile of cardboard boxes left from work, and when you have two toddlers at home that can mean only one thing: he was building a fort.
Courtesy of Jeremy Trentelman
With the help of their kids Max, 3, and Story, 2, Trentelman and his wife, Dee, cut and taped the cardboard to build two towers, trap doors, tunnels, and a slide.
They built the whole thing last week with the help of their friend, Byron Owens, and his two kids Satoria and Oliver in Ogden, Utah.
His friend's daughter also wrote a sign on the door of the fort reading, "Everyone can come in."
"We all had a blast putting it together and we've had tons of fun with it since," Trentelman told BuzzFeed News.
So when he came home to find a letter from the city telling him his cardboard fort violated city code, he was dumbounded.
Trentelman has few choices.
He can pay $25 to dispute the citation, or pay the $125 fee if the fort doesn't come down within 15 days.
That means, Trentelman said, he's got 14 days to milk the fort for all its worth.
According to the letter, the fort violated the city's code prohibiting, "waste materials or junk on premises."
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The "Responsible High" That Is Also A Rape Drug
Though many people still associate it with sexual assault, GHB is growing more popular as a fun high with less of a hangover than alcohol, MDMA, or cocaine.
LHE
One recent weekend in San Francisco, a guy we'll call Jesse was dancing the night away at a house party when he grabbed the wrong cup. Instead of the tart cranberry and vodka he was expecting, he tasted red Gatorade. Within half an hour, he felt disoriented and had to sit down. Just as Jesse began to pass out, his friends, a group of gay men he parties with all the time, recognized that he was "falling out," or overdosing on the drug they call "G." They gave him water, walked him the five blocks to his apartment, made sure he was sleeping on his stomach so he wouldn't choke on his own vomit, and headed back out.
Three hours later, Jesse reappeared at the party, sober and awake, like nothing had ever happened. Some were shocked to see him again, so soon after what had appeared to be a dramatic overdose, but his friends were unperturbed. They laughed, and everyone went on dancing.
A quick recovery time is one of the primary appeals of G, which has long been present in some raver circles and gay clubs but has become increasingly popular in the last few years. While substances like Molly, alcohol, and cocaine typically lead to a day of physical and emotional recovery, with users experiencing exhaustion, pain, or chemically induced depression, G does not. And as long as you follow the rules — take small doses at deliberate intervals, no mixing with alcohol — you're guaranteed all the perks of coke or MDMA with no hangover. But have just a few sips too many, or give in to the temptation to take a shot, and you could wind up limp, like a rag doll, with little control over your own body.
The overdose effects are why most people know G not as an exhilarating high but as a disturbing low — specifically, as the date rape drug GHB.
Alice Mongkongllite/BuzzFeed
That's right. A substance most often portrayed in movies and TV shows like Veronica Mars as a tool for rapists is not only being taken recreationally, but those who use GHB consider it a perfect high, and a safer, more responsible alternative to alcohol. You know, as long as they only use it around people they trust.
GHB, or gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid, was first synthesized in France in 1960 as an anesthetic but soon proved to have a surprisingly varied set of uses. While late-night revelers appreciate the lowered social inhibitions and heightened sex drive, bodybuilders take GHB for its supposed release of human growth hormone, and narcoleptics use an FDA-approved version to get to sleep. Club kids began dabbling in GHB recreationally in the late 1980s, leading the government to list it alongside heroin and LSD as a Schedule I substance in 1990, but its popularity had dropped significantly by the end of the 20th century.
Now doctors and partiers, particularly in San Francisco, say they're seeing a resurgence of the odorless, transparent liquid, primarily among gay professionals.
"It's a pretty popular drug in our city. I've definitely seen it much more as a recreational drug of abuse [than as a date rape drug] in recent times," said Dr. Craig Smollin, who is the associate medical director of the San Francisco Division of California Poison Control and has been an emergency physician at San Francisco General Hospital for the past 10 years.
In a city fixated on developing ways to live and work more productively, it's no surprise a drug promising temporary euphoria and no hangover has found a significant following. But just as many of Silicon Valley's supposedly time-saving technologies have enabled unprecedented levels of procrastination, the efficiency of GHB's high and comedown process depends entirely on how you use it. Despite the pervasive sense among partiers that G is safer than alcohol, Smollin said a breathing tube and placement in the intensive care unit is more likely to be necessary for a GHB overdose than for an alcohol overdose. Combining GHB with alcohol can be lethal, and frequent GHB use on its own can lead to addiction, seizures, hallucinations, and serious respiratory and central nervous system problems.
Another part of the appeal is that GHB can be made at home, because the necessary precursor chemicals are available online as cleaning solutions, adhesives, and paint strippers. Most of the time, those making the drug will mix liquid GHB into a sweet nonalcoholic drink to mask the sour, salty taste one user compared to Windex, and take sips every half an hour or every two hours, depending on the concentration.
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After Being Sold To Give Rides, A Baby Elephant Had A Heartwarming Reunion With Her Mother
The young elephant was sold into the Thai tourism trade and forced to give tourists rides.
Mother and baby at one week old.
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What People Think About Zodiac Signs (Fire And Water Signs)
“Pisces is the type of person to say ‘no, it’s not fine. Let’s talk about it.’” How well did we guess your sign?
BuzzFeed Video / Via youtube.com
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Which Disney Villain Should You Team Up With To Take Over The World?
Start perfecting your evil laugh now.
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David Lynch Has Left Showtime's "Twin Peaks" Revival
“Not enough money was offered to do the script the way I felt it needed to be done,” the original series’ creator tweeted.
Six months ago, the news of a Twin Peaks continuation on Showtime had the internet more excited than Agent Cooper over some damn fine coffee.
CBS Productions
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People Eat Bugs For The First Time
Hakuna Matata
BuzzFeed Video / Via youtube.com
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McDonald's Boosts Wages In Company-Owned Restaurants
Starting wages will go up to one dollar above the minimum wage. But unless franchise owners match the raise, only about 10% of McDonald’s workers will benefit.
AFP / Getty Images SAUL LOEB
McDonald's said Wednesday that employees at its company-owned restaurants would be paid one dollar above the local minimum wage starting July 1. By the end of next year, the company said, wages on average would be $10 an hour.
McDonald's is the latest large employer to announce a wage increase for its lowest-paid empoyees. Wal-Mart said last month that it would raise its minimum wage to $9 an hour, and Target made a similar policy change earlier this month. Gap said last year it was raising its lowest wage to $10.
Employees at restaurants McDonald's owns who have worked there for at least a year will start getting paid time off. The company said that employees who work 20 hours a week will get about 20 hours of paid time off. The changes will affect employees at about 10% of McDonald's 14,000 locations in the U.S. and about 90,000 employees.
The vast majority of McDonald's locations are franchised and owned independently, meaning Wednesday's announcement does not apply to their employees. McDonald's has argued vehemently that it should not be considered a "joint employer" of the workers in its franchises.
McDonald's announced that it would offer some educational assistance to employees at all McDonald's restaurants as well, including paying for McDonald's employees to take classes with Career Online High School to get a high school diploma.
"We've been working on a comprehensive benefits package for our employees — the people who bring our brand to life for customers every day in our U.S. restaurants," said McDonald's newly installed CEO Steve Easterbrook in a statement. "We've listened to our employees and learned that — in addition to increased wages — paid personal leave and financial assistance for completing their education would make a real difference in their careers and lives."
McDonald's business and reputation has suffered in recent years, especially in the U.S., where same-store sales fell in the most recent quarter and its operating income dropped 15%. Former McDonald's CEO Don Thompson announced his resignation in late January.
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The Warrior Imams On The Battlefields Of Iraq
Imams have joined Shiite militia on the frontlines of the fight against ISIS, tasked with stoking the religious passions of the fighters – but also working to keep them in line. BuzzFeed News’ Mike Giglio reports from Iraq.
Murad al-Sharifi, an imam embedded with Shiite militia on the edge of Anbar province in Iraq.
Ayman Oghanna for BuzzFeed News
SADAAN, Iraq — The imam stepped through the broken village holding an assault rifle and wearing combat fatigues. All that stood out from the militiamen around him was the black turban that marked him as a holy man of Shiite Islam. He was at ease with the fighters as they stood amid the wreckage of a battle that drove ISIS from this patch of territory on the edge of Anbar in western Iraq. "This is my duty," he said.
Murad al-Sharifi had completed years of religious study with plans to become a community imam when Iraq's top Shiite cleric issued a call to arms in June. The fatwa from 84-year-old Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani helped to raise a volunteer force some 100,000 strong — and these militia have played a critical role in the fight against ISIS, which pushes an extremist version of Sunni Islam. But the growing strength of the militia has also brought fears that they will respond to ISIS's atrocities with abuses of their own as Iraq enters a new stage in its history of sectarian strife.
At the center of the struggle are imams like Sharifi that many of the militia groups have dispatched to the front. They say their role is to stoke the religious passions that inspired the volunteers to join the fight — while also working to keep them in line. Sharifi said that in addition to fighting, leading prayers and counseling soldiers, he tries to keep their fervor from boiling over into sectarian attacks. He promotes the message that the minority Sunni Arab population — in a country increasingly dominated by its Shiite majority — are victims of ISIS too. Yet his very presence on the front was a testament to the war's religious charge.
ISIS targets the imams with snipers, Sharifi said, and he knew of several who had died. But he was undeterred by dangers that were a far cry from the mosque-bound job he once had in mind. "As an imam," he said, "you have to be in front."
The militia officially work under the umbrella of the Iraqi government — and they have become its main fighting force, vastly outnumbering the military's soldiers in key offensives across the country. In the largest battle against ISIS to date, in the city of Tikrit, the militia accounted for more than three-quarters of the troops, according to the U.S. military's top general. They are backed by Iranian weapons, training and military advisors. "All we have to count on is God and Iran," one fighter joked.
The outsized role of the militia — and the presence of the Iranians — initially led the U.S. to sit out the Tikrit offensive. But the U.S. military commenced airstrikes there last week, and the Iraqi government declared victory in the city on Tuesday.
Militia fighters listen to a sermon near the front.
Ayman Oghanna for BuzzFeed News
Fighters on the ground are matter-of-fact about what gives them the strength to fight ISIS: their faith. They say their religious passion is needed to combat an enemy driven by its own — and the militia now dominate the fight while the Iraqi military, which fled in the face of ISIS' summer advance, struggles to regain its footing. "This is an ideological war," said a fighter with Sharifi's militia, the Badr Brigades, which played a key role in Tikrit. "That's why the Iraqi army is weak, because they don't have an ideology. We are the ones who fight with an ideology."
Another fighter, an engineer who responded to Sistani's call this summer, said he was motivated by both patriotism and faith. "I am a fighter for the country," he said. "But it's because of [Sistani's call] that I became encouraged to fight. There is no difference. I am defending my religion and I am defending the country."
Imams working on the front viewed their involvement as a logical step. Since militia fighters were waging a religious war, the imams said, they needed to make sure it was carried out properly. "The main inspiration for the fighting is religious motivation. So we have to make sure that all of our members behave according to our ideology," said Khaled Assadi, an imam with Asai'b uhl al-Haq, which like the Badr Brigades is among the largest of the dozens of militia groups. "We are basically the safety net, because we are explaining to the fighters how they must deal with everyone."
The militia have faced accusations of abuse from the start — a recent Human Rights Watch report said militia fighters have carried out forced evictions, kidnappings and summary executions in Sunni areas, calling them possible war crimes. Assadi claimed the problems had been exaggerated. There were instances of fighters committing human-rights violations, he said, "and we are dealing with every case immediately."
Assadi worked as an imam with Asai'b uhl al-Haq — which receives extensive backing from Iran — when the group fought U.S. troops during the Iraq War. But he kept more to the background then, he said. "Our role [as imams] has changed because the danger has changed and the operations have become bigger," he said. "Now our role is greater and more important. Now we have to be in the frontline in everything."
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Will Puerto Rico Become The New Cuba In Florida In The 2016 Election?
Puerto Ricans will pass Cubans as the largest Latino group in Florida in the coming years. But will the issue of the island becoming the 51st state mobilize Puerto Ricans in the key swing state in 2016?
Hillary Clinton enters a campaign event at San Juan Batista Medical Center in Caguas, Puerto Rico, Saturday, May 31, 2008.
Elise Amendola / AP
When President Obama became the first sitting president to visit Puerto Rico since John F. Kennedy in the midst of the 2012 cycle, it wasn't because the island is a pivotal swing state. Residents of Puerto Rico can't vote for president, even though they're U.S. citizens.
That is not the case in Florida, however, where the Puerto Rican population is booming. Between 2010 and 2013, nearly 150,000 more people left Puerto Rico than settled there, according to Pew. Puerto Ricans, in fact, are poised to pass Cubans as the largest Latino group in the state in the coming years. Obama would go on to win Florida by less than 1%, with internal campaign numbers showing they won 86% of the Puerto Rican vote.
The question of what appeals to Puerto Rican voters — what will bring them out to the polls — will increasingly play in the Democratic calculus for the critical state. The answer is less than clear. But some donors and activists are already pushing hard for Puerto Rican statehood as a campaign promise from Hillary Clinton or for granting Puerto Rico residents the right to vote.
"The island is collapsing under the weight of an ancient territorial infrastructure," said Puerto Rican lawyer Andrés W. López, co-chair of the Futuro Fund, which raised $32 million for Obama's re-election. "Absolutely, she needs to clarify. That's how the Cuba issue became salient. You had to take a position on what the policy ought to be on the island."
In 2008, Clinton said that as president she would enable the question of status to be resolved, but "without any preference among the options." Sen. Marco Rubio, who is expected to announce his candidacy for president this month, has also said that it is up to Puerto Ricans to decide what they want to do.
"That's a bullshit hedge," López said. "You're either pro-immigration or anti-immigration. Pro-marriage equality or anti-marriage equality. On this, you're either pro-equality or you're not, you can't be in the middle."
During that first campaign, though, Clinton also said she supported the right of Puerto Ricans to vote for president. Kenneth McClintock, Puerto Rico's lieutenant governor for four years under previous governor Luis Fortuño, a Republican, said Clinton has a positive history with Puerto Ricans. (In 1998, for example, she surveyed damage in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Georges.) She was on the island more than Obama in 2008, too, those who watched the race say.
"The reason why it's important that every Puerto Rican think about participating in this primary is because you do not have the right to vote in the general election, which I think is wrong," she said at the time. "I believe that you should have the same opportunity as American citizens do in helping to pick the president."
Phillip Arroyo has been circulating video of those remarks on Facebook and YouTube. He has made a documentary on Puerto Rico's issues and started a nascent effort at Florida A&M law school, where he is a student, to draft a constitutional amendment for Puerto Rico to gain the right to vote.
Watching Obama's well-received speech on the 50th anniversary of the Selma marches, Arroyo was moved by his words but hurt by the reality his island faces.
"I got a little angry when I was watching the president give his speech at Selma," Arroyo said. "When I [interned] at the White House I was the only intern who couldn't vote for his re-election. It hurt me, like, 'Damn, he's giving this great speech about equality and about voting and 3.5 million Puerto Ricans citizens can't vote.'"
A 2014 survey conducted by Voter Consumer Research of 400 Puerto Ricans in the I-4 corridor — the critical stretch of Central Florida that often decides the state's elections — found that 64% support statehood. This came after 61% of Puerto Ricans on the island chose statehood in a 2012 nonbinding resolution, a substantial increase from the 46% who supported statehood in 1998. But these votes are highly politicized and the 2012 referendum was criticized by commonwealth supporters as set up to encourage higher support for statehood.
Matt Barreto of polling firm Latino Decisions said Puerto Rican voters have the potential to become a force in Florida. "The Puerto Rican population, because it has citizenship on the island and when they move to the state of Florida, is able to more rapidly enter the electorate, faster than any other demographic, including Cubans," he said.
But while there are Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. who support statehood, members of both parties rejected the idea that Puerto Rico's status could become a galvanizing election issue for these voters.
Rene Plasencia was recently elected in House District 49 in Orange County, which he says is the most Democratic district represented by a Republican in Florida. With that in mind, he told BuzzFeed News he knocked on 6,000 doors of Latino Democrats and those with no party affiliation and he found that statehood for Puerto Rico was not a major issue.
Josh Romero, a regional political director for Obama in the I-4 corridor in 2012, agreed. "It's one of those issues that can energize Puerto Ricans in Central Florida, but it doesn't come up until you bring it up," he said.
Carlos Ramos, with the AFL-CIO in South Florida, said he lived in Orlando and Puerto Ricans from the area are diverse, hailing from New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New Jersey, as well as the island. He said this contributes to less of a singular Puerto Rican identity.
"They're a mixed group, they still don't control the political establishment," he said.
But many who are knowledgeable about the issue of Puerto Rico's status said one likely presidential candidate could possibly elevate the issue because of his support of statehood for the island and long history with Puerto Ricans: Jeb Bush.
"He did a really good job including and attracting the Puerto Rican vote in his last election," said Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist and Bush supporter. "He has a close connection with mayors in Puerto Rico, he has a relationship with Puerto Rican pastors — he appointed Puerto Ricans and spent a lot of time there."
That time was during 1980 when he ran his father's campaign on the island. Bush made connections and friendships during the nine months he spent in Puerto Rico and displayed a cultural fluency that would be on display during his years as governor in Florida as well.
Alfonso Aguilar, who served in the U.S. Department of Energy during the George W. Bush administration, recalls an event in a poor Miami neighborhood where he watched Jeb Bush go to work.
The event was at the home of a Puerto Rican mother, with two children with autism, to highlight a program that provided funding for poor families to weatherize their homes and reduce their utility bills. No one from the advance team was speaking to her because no one spoke Spanish, but when Bush showed up he walked right up to her, speaking Spanish and diving into a conversation on the intricacies of Puerto Rican politics. A bit later, former energy secretary Spencer Abraham rumbled up to the home, driving a gas-guzzling car.
"The energy secretary doesn't drive a very energy-efficient car," Bush cracked, producing a laugh from the woman.
Aguilar, who has met with Republicans considering a White House run, believes they should lean into the issue. "What Republicans should do in Central Florida is say, 'I am for statehood, if I am elected president we will push the process through Congress.'"
But Barreto noted a reason some Republicans would want to stay away from statehood for Puerto Rico.
"3.5 million people? That's probably four congressional districts, six electoral votes and two U.S. Senators, all Democrats," he said.
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This Is How A Bunch Of Today's Teens Reacted To '90s Music
“It’s Mariah Carey — she should be number one every week of my life.”
The REACT YouTube channel asked a bunch of teens whether or not they knew a series of hit '90s songs, and their answers are quite entertaining.
youtube.com / Via youtube.com
REACT
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In A First, New York Boy Scouts Hire Out Gay Man
The move sets up a potential conflict with the Boy Scouts of America’s national policy. Noted lawyer David Boies is representing Pascal Tessier — and is ready to challenge any rejection of Tessier’s hire by the national organization.
Pascal Tessier (left) receives his Eagle Scout badge in February 2014, becoming one of the first openly gay Scouts to reach scouting's highest rank.
Luis M. Alvarez / AP
WASHINGTON — The Greater New York Councils of the Boy Scouts of America has hired an out gay man to serve as a leader at its scout camps this summer, the first out gay adult leader known to have been approved to work with the Scouts.
Should the national leadership of the Boy Scouts of America not allow the hire to move forward, the man — Pascal Tessier — already is represented by lawyer David Boies of Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, who is prepared to challenge any rejection of Tessier's hire.
Although the national Boy Scouts of America changed its membership policies in 2013 to allow out gay youth members, it has maintained its ban on openly gay adult members.
Boies, speaking to BuzzFeed News, urged the president of the Boy Scouts, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, to put an end to the ban.
"He knows himself that ending this discrimination is the right thing to do," Boies said. "He's always been a leader and part of the function of a leader is to move things along, and I think the Boy Scouts need somebody who is prepared to stand up and say, 'This is the right thing to do, and this is the right time to do it.'"
Tessier, for his part, was one of the first out gay scouts to receive the highest rank in scouting, Eagle Scout, after the policy change, and he, when he turned 18 this past August, also urged Gates to change the policy in an open letter published at Time. His hire by the Greater New York Councils sets up a potential conflict with the national leadership of the organization.
When asked on Wednesday if there was any change to the national policy regarding out gay adult leaders, Boy Scouts of America spokesman Deron Smith responded, "[T]here isn't." Smith did not immediately respond on Thursday to a request for comment regarding Tessier's hire specifically.
The Greater New York Councils, however, is ready for Tessier to get to work.
"We've accepted him, he was put through the normal process," Richard Mason, a board member of the Greater New York Councils and spokesman for the councils, told BuzzFeed News. "They have not, to my knowledge, rejected him, so, as far as we are concerned, this young man is coming to work, is ready to do so this summer."
Boies, known for pairing with Ted Olson in challenging marriage bans in California and Virginia, is hopeful about the hire — but ready to take on the national Boy Scouts should they reject Tessier's employment.
"We're hopeful that this signals the end of the last vestige of the Scouts' discrimination," Boies said of Tessier's hiring. "While I don't want to be overly optimistic, I think this signals, at least the end of this type of discrimination on a national level. Whether or not they're going to allow individual councils to continue to discriminate, I don't know. I hope not, I hope not."
Of the formal national BSA policy, he added, "That's obviously against the law in a number of states, including New York."
He also added that the Boy Scouts' argument in a 2000 Supreme Court decision upholding their right to select their members and exclude out gay leaders like James Dale, who had sued the Boy Scouts for excluding him, has been undermined by the actions they've taken in recent years.
"It's very hard for the Boy Scouts to now say that they have an expressive message that being gay is not 'morally straight' because they … have Eagle Scouts who are gay and they have councils, including New York, who specifically, expressly, affirmatively take the position that discrimination against people based on sexual orientation is wrong and the national organization itself has things on its website that are quite inconsistent with the message that being gay is not being 'morally straight,'" Boies said. "So, what you have is this vestige of discrimination that hangs on, in terms of employment, that really doesn't have even the underpinning that the court relied on in Dale."
Zach Wahls with Scouts for Equality — whose work on the issue Boies praised as "terrific" — said he was "thrilled" about Tessier's hiring.
"He's going to make a fine camp counselor at one of the best Scout camps in America," Wahls said. "I hope his hiring marks the beginning of the end for the Boy Scouts' ban on gay adults, and I look forward to the Scouts making clear that gay adults like Pascal are eligible for membership and employment."
Mason, an Eagle Scout himself, strongly defended the councils' decision, saying, "From our perspective, it's really direct. This is a young man, who is also an Eagle Scout, very well qualified, applied for a job with one of the summer camps that the Greater New York Councils runs. On the merits, his applications clearly passes our standards ... and we don't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. So, we've accepted his application on the merits."
Boies acknowledged that Tessier's situation — applying for a paid employment position, as opposed to a volunteer position, with a council that is supportive of sexual orientation nondiscrimination in a state with sexual orientation nondiscrimination protections — is among the most advantageous scenarios for a potential challenge to the national policy.
"You want to start with an easy case, that you have some confidence in winning, and as you saw with marriage equality, that can snowball," he said. "So, I think what we're going to do is try to resolve this issue and once that's behind us, then we'll see where we go at that point."
Looking across the national landscape, though, Boies said he believed the issue is one the hits home for many Americans.
"This is an issue that a lot of people are interested in just because the Boy Scouts is such an American institution. It seems particularly wrong to have an institution like that discriminating," he said. "Florists and cake-makers and the like — I don't to diminish that at all in terms of importance — but it doesn't have the sort of tug on the American heartstrings that the scouts have."
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